Refrigerators and built-in appliances generally which are presently available to the consumer are almost always provided with an arrangement for adjustably supporting each of their four corners. These adjustable support arrangements are normally provided to facilitate levelling of the cabinet for various reasons, the most significant of which includes efficient operation. For example, an appliance such as a refrigerator is often required to be either level or near level so that the refrigeration equipment will be in the proper orientation for proper functioning. A second reason is to facilitate proper closing of the door of the refrigerator since in some instances the refrigerator door is made self-closing by inclining the refrigerator slightly toward the rear or by structuring the hinges in a manner to cause the refrigerator door to close automatically by such inclination.
Adjustment of the height of each corner of the appliance has often been a difficult task with the support and adjustment mechanisms which have been provided in the past. The most common adjustable support mechanism in use has been in the form of a threaded rod having a foot attached to the lower portion and being threadedly engaged within a threaded nut or threaded female member attached to the structure at each corner of the refrigerator. Adjustment of the refrigerator therefore involves lifting the refrigerator off the base support and threadedly advancing or withdrawing the rod from the nut-like member so as to lower or raise each respective corner. The procedure often involves heavy lifting and trial and error to make certain that each corner portion of the refrigerator is of the appropriate height to achieve the proper level or inclination as may be desired.
More often than not, this lifting and trial and error adjustment procedure is made particularly difficult for the portion of the refrigerator or appliance which is remote from the normally accessible front corners because, as a practical matter, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to gain access to the rear corners of the appliance for the purpose of lifting those corners and making the appropriate rod adjustment. In particular, the most illustrative example of such a situation is a built-in refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer or the like.
In some instances, designs have been proposed whereby an appropriate adjustment of a remote corner of an appliance has been made possible by a complicated linkage system which is mounted beneath the appliance and utilized to rotate an appropriate structure to provide adjustment of the remote corners of the appliance. In some of these structures, a tool has been supplied with the appliance for insertion thereunder for adjustment of an appropriate mechanism at the remote location. Such arrangements have proven to be difficult to use by consumers and not very reliable in raising or lowering the cabinet against its own inherent weight, together with the weight of the foodstuffs being stored within the cabinet.
In addition to the above described mechanisms, various other adjustable support devices have been used. Such support devices include combinations of threaded rods with lower foot supports, elongated mechanisms for controlling movable supports at remote locations of the appliance from accessible locations thereof and relatively complicated brackets and threaded members generally to support the appliance. Often such refrigerators are supported on shoes made of steel plate members or other supporting structures.
Such devices have been found to be difficult to operate for a number of reasons due in part to the weight of the appliance and the support structures employed. In addition, appropriate friction eliminating devices, such as roller castors and bearings or sleeves, which normally promote smooth operation, are not present. We have invented an adjustable roller support for such appliances which has eliminated the disadvantages of the prior art while making adjustment of all four corners of the cabinet extremely simple and convenient from the two front accessible corner locations. In particular, adjustment of the front locations is accomplished by use of a simple spanner wrench and adjustment of the rear locations is accomplished by the use of a socket type or equivalent wrench introduced into each front accessible location whereby adjustment of the corresponding remote location rearward thereof is made.